29 March 2015

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was pleasantly surprised with two new items for my movie memorabilia collection – the ring of the Witch-king (from my parents) and a polystone Witch-king figure (from my significant other).

26 March 2015

While Tolkien Reading Day occurred yesterday, a migraine left me with no energy to prepare a post or do much on social media. Even though I'm a day late, I thought I'd quickly pull and share a few quotes which have really resonated with me and deal with this year's theme, which was friendship:

'You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin–to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours – closer
than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble
alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo.'–The Fellowship of the Ring, A Conspiracy Unmasked

'But you won't send him off alone surely, Master?' cried
Sam, unable to contain himself any longer, and jumping up from the corner where
he had been quietly sitting on the floor. 'No indeed!' said Elrond, turning towards him
with a smile. 'You at least shall go with him. It is hardly possible to
separate you from him, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are
not.'
–The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond

The Brothers Hildebrandt

'I should dearly love to journey in Fangorn's Wood. I scarcely
passed beyond the eaves of it, and I did not wish to turn back.'

Treebeard's eyes gleamed with pleasure. 'I hope you may
have your wish, ere the hills be much older,' he said.

'I will come, if I have the fortune,' said Legolas. 'I
have made a bargain with my friend that, if all goes well, we will visit
Fangorn together–by your leave.'

'Any Elf that comes with you will be welcome,' said
Treebeard.

'The friend I speak of is not an Elf,' said Legolas; 'I
mean Gimli, Glóin's son here.'

–The Two Towers, The Voice of Saruman

Éowyn and Faramir by Ted Nasmith

'How should I ease your care, my lord?' she said. 'And I
do not desire the speech of living men.'

'Would you have my plain answer?' he said.

'I would.'

'Then, Éowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful. In the
valleys of our hills there are flowers fair and bright, and maidens fairer
still; but neither flower nor lady have I seen till now in Gondor so lovely,
and so sorrowful. It may be that only a few days are left ere darkness falls
upon our world, and when it comes I hope to face it steadily; but it would ease
my heart, if while the Sun yet shines, I could see you still. For you and I
have both passed under the wings of the Shadow, and the same hand drew us
back.'

–The Return of the King, The Steward and the King

Beleg's Death by Anke Eissmann

'Thus ended Beleg Strongbow, truest of friends, greatest
in skill of all that harboured in the woods of Beleriand in the Elder Days, at
the hand of him whom he most loved; and that grief was graven on the face of Túrin
and never faded.'

–The Children of Húrin, The Death of Beleg

~*~*~

What are some of your favourite book quotes relating to friendship in Middle-earth? Leave a comment below or Tweet me @TolkienBritta!

23 March 2015

Many years ago, I was one of those people who got really excited
by the idea of Peter Jackson making another film set in Middle-earth. While The
Lord of the Rings films were not perfect, they were a noble and well-executed attempt
at bringing an "unfilmable" story to life on the big screen, and I
enjoyed them immensely. After seeing those films, I had no doubt that he could
do equal justice to The Hobbit, a
considerably shorter tale.

Unfortunately, from the very beginning, the Hobbit films
have seemed more like fan fiction than a straightforward adaptation: where the
Lord of the Rings films omitted some of the source material in order to tell a
more concise story, the Hobbit films added new, often made up, material in
order to lengthen a story that really didn't need any help. When I first saw An
Unexpected Journey and The
Desolation of Smaug, I couldn't resist pointing out all of the
inaccuracies; but after the DVDs came out and I watched each film a second
time, I found myself able to overlook some of my gripes and actually enjoy the
experience. As I've said before, Peter Jackson and his team do know how to make
films that are worth watching.

Going forward, I chose not to assess The Hobbit: The Battle
of the Five Armies on its merit as an adaptation of The Hobbit. I would probably drive myself (and others) mad if I
continued to nitpick all the changes, whether major or minor. Instead I opted
to judge it by what it was: a movie. And since it was almost entirely devoted
to the Battle of the Five Armies, I frequently found myself comparing it to the
Lord of the Rings trilogy.

With The Battle of Helm's Deep, the Battle of the Pelennor
Fields, and the Battle of the Morannon as prime examples of what Jackson and
his crew are capable of, I was expecting to be blown away by the Battle of the
Five Armies. If anyone can take a single sentence from a book ("So began a
battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of the Five Armies,
and it was very terrible" [The
Hobbit, 'The Clouds Burst']) and turn it into an engaging three hour
cinematic experience, Jackson's your guy. Not to mention he's had a decade to
improve his craft.

15 March 2015

I went out today, not with the intention of "treasure-hunting", but to just get a couple of things I needed. One thing led to another, however, and I ended up with 5 new items in my Tolkien collection!

$5 at a used bookstore

The Fellowship of the Ring on VHS; $1.99 at a thrift store

Love these versions.

I also have this version in black

At the used bookstore where I found the latter three books, I also came across a 1960 copy of The Hobbit ($175) and a pristine second printing of Tree and Leaf ($275). Since I have a birthday coming up, I thought I'd wait on those and casually drop some hints to my family and friends...but even without those two copies, I think I did pretty well today!

05 March 2015

My friend and fellow Middle-earth News member Lily Milos is basically the fairy godmother of Tolkien collecting: if you follow myself and Myla Malinalda (also of Middle-earth News) on Instagram, you'll see us posting things along the lines of, "Oh my God! Look what Lily sent me!"

Most recently, Lily sent me three new books: The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The QPB Companion to The Lord of the Rings; additionally, she sent an Arwen bookmark and a unique card featuring a mashup of Rohan, Helm's Deep, and Isengard.